Article 370 of the Indian constitution provided Kashmir valley its special status and autonomy in every aspect, expect defense, communication, and foreign affairs. Similarly, article 35A of the same constitution gave permanent residency to Kashmiris and all basic rights of the residents. Thus, both articles were important in maintaining the special status of the valley.
Sadly, both of these articles were revoked on 5 August 2019, unilaterally by India, and Kashmir lost its autonomy. Kashmir is now one of the states of India. Indians can now even buy land and property in the disputed region of the Muslim majority and can rule with their Hindutva ideology.
They would surely manipulate the already devastating basic human rights of local Kashmiris, as happening in Palestine.
In Palestine, Israelis have developed illegal settlements in Gaza and West bank. Not only that, these settlements are increasing with every passing day. Adding fuel to fire, Israel has recently announced to annex these settlements in the Israeli region from Palestinian territories.
Now the question is, will Kashmiris will face the same fate of oppression and genocide like Palestinians?
Tracing back history, both of these states are in dispute since the British left the respective region after world war II.
In case of Kashmir, British fail to divide the subcontinent with equity and thus sow the seed of everlasting bloody dispute. Kashmir was Muslim majority princely state and thus according to the rule of independence, it should also be given a freedom of choice to opt Pakistan, India or be an independent state. Most of the population was inclined toward Pakistan due its Muslim population.
But, the leader of the state was non-Muslim and thus he tried his best to stop this annexation, and he succeeded. And ever since, the state is bone of contention between two autonomous states.
But in case of Palestine, it is not a disputed territory. It is the dispute between two states for its autonomy and hegemony.
After fall of Ottoman Empire, Palestine was Muslim majority state with some other minorities, including Jews, living in peace. But with the passage of time, this peace started vanishing with every day pass. Jews start moving from different parts of Europe to Palestine because they have also had their holy sites in Jerusalem, like Muslims.
As more Jews migrated to Palestine, Arabs started to protest against it as they were rightly afraid that Jews will take over their land.Devolving conditions become worse when the Jewish holocaust started all across Europe. A large number of Jews fled to Palestine.
A fter the end of world of war II, British divide the region with Jew majority region of Israel and Muslim majority region of Palestine. It seemed fair, but the ‘jigsaw’ division of Palestine had already shown that it would not last longer, and so did happened. Since then, both of these nations have fought numerous wars; war of 1948-49, 1967, first and second intifada, to take full control of the region but failed. Peace treaties like Camp David accord and two Oslo Accords are also in vain and Palestinians continued losing their land.
As Israel controls majority of the area, and with the help of allies, it is successful in maintaining its hegemony in the region and oppressing the Muslims. Israel started building settlements in west bank and Gaza strip. It is against the laws of UN, which marked the border between two in 1947. But due to its upper hand and with the back of super power, it has been doing whatever it wanted.
The logic it provides is that they got holy sites in west bank, moreover, Palestinian land is cheap and by building settlements, Israel can take control of Palestine slowly and steadily.
As Palestinian Muslims protested against these settlements, they were always put down with heavy gun fire and military force. Thus, mass genocide has been taking place in Palestine since long. Moreover, Israeli army have been continuously guarding the settlements in Palestine.
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In both Kashmir and Palestine, inhabitant Muslims have been facing mass brutality from their superior opponent. Mass genocide has become the order of the day. Not only internet access and other communications networks have been banned in both states, but media coverage is also not allowed. All of this is because the world could not get the correct information about the human massacre going on in the states by India and Israel respectively.
Moreover, a number of young Kashmiris and Palestinians have been murdered in the fake police encounter under the drama of maintaining peace. Number of generations have been killed brutally and illegally but no international organization has taken any serious step towards ending the ongoing mass genocide.
International peace organizations like United Nations purpose numerous conventions and peace treaties to solve the dispute but all gone useless. This is because these organizations just did the paperwork and no practical step has been taken to stop the human genocide. Further, world-leading nations are manipulating the disputes for their own personal gain. Thus, they never honestly wanted to end the whole drama.
Thus, by comparing the vulnerability of both Kashmiris and Palestinian, it is evident that British maniac left the disputes un resolved, and they have become the world deadliest disputes.
Like Israeli government, Indian government has also allowed to build settlements in the regions. And like Israeli, India also got the back of world super power. But things are different in case of Kashmir as compared to Palestine.
Kashmir is the dispute between two nuclear armed countries; thus, any act of aggression would be dealt with great powers. While conflict between Israel and Palestine is the fight between two states for their own hegemony. They are not fighting for the piece of land which they don’t own, they are fighting for their mother land.
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Neither India, nor Pakistan is fighting for their motherland, they are just squabbling for beautiful piece of land, full with natural beauty and resources. Thus, the fighting for Kashmir between India and Pakistan is wholly political. Only Kashmiris are fighting for their cause.
In a nutshell, Israelis were successful in building their settlement in Palestine because latter got no country to back them. But in case of Kashmir, though politically, valley got the back of Pakistan. And due to shift in global power dynamic, unlike Israel, India got two nuclear foes in the region. Thus, any act of aggression will be costly, not only for the region, but for the whole world; as nuclear attacks of modern world can erase humanity from earth.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of “Global Defense Insight”
